Harrow has been living and working in the Elemental circus for years, hiding as a human to protect her true identity as the last remaining Seer. Her family and the rest of the Seers were killed off by wraiths controlled by Queen Furie long ago. One day, Harrow feels a pull toward a specific tent at the circus, and finds that Salizar, the circus owner, has a creature trapped in a cage. Harrow is furious and wants to free the creature who has no memory of who or what he is. Regardless, Harrow chooses to protect him, and together they start uncovering the dark secrets of his past.

I think this book has the potential to be really good, but it missed the mark a bit for me. I absolutely loved Harrow and Mal’s friendship as well as the opportunity characters were given to grow from past wrongs. The spice was spicy and Harrow and Raith seemed to have a really strong bond that transcended pretty much everything.

I wanted to learn more about the circus and I also was hoping for a more in depth exploration of the Elementals. I feel like that was kind of brushed over and not explained well. The pacing was a bit off, and the writing style felt like it changed drastically at different parts of the book. Some parts were repetitive, there were some plot holes, and there were also parts that were well written. I think overall I just have mixed feelings about this book. I’ll probably still pick up the next book to see what happens next.

Thank you to Entangled and Red Tower for the ARC!

Edit: After thinking about this more, I have a lot more feedback. This book discusses enslaving of wraiths and the systematic genocide of Seers without any content warnings or in depth discussion of the topics. Additionally both of these topics were glossed over in the book like everything was fine, and neither of those occurrences are okay. More time should have been spent on how Raith broke free of the Furies vow when he spared Harrow, how he rediscovered who he was. There wasn't any healing that occurred for either Raith or Harrow. They just love each other and that's enough to overcome both slavery and genocide? Absolutely not.

Harrow has found sanctuary in the circus as a place to hide her true abilities after her entire clan was slain when she was a child. She was content with her place until a stranger is brought in to be the newest attraction. He has no memory, and no idea what he is. The only clue to his identity - the unique and deadly powers he possesses. However, something in this stranger calls to Harrow, and she’ll stop at nothing to learn both his secrets and hers that she’s locked away.
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Ascher has written a heart wrenching tale when choice is taken away and loss is all you’ve known. I’ll start by saying I LOVED the first half of the book. The heartbreak Harrow has endured is enough to crush anyone’s spirit, but she hasn’t let the loss break her. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the MMC who has no recollection of who or what he is let alone anything from his past. The two are inexplicably drawn together especially when Harrow is convinced this stranger can’t be what everyone thinks he is. I was all in on this part of the storyline — figuring out who the mysterious stranger really is. However, after his identity is discovered, I felt the story fell flat. It felt like a struggle between wanting to be a character driven book and a political conflict driven book, with both suffering. The ending unfortunately felt anticlimactic. However, this may be because I tend to read series that end in cliffhangers. There are also some really heavy themes tackled in this book that I wish were further developed. I will say, though, I loved Mal’s character throughout the entire story, and I can’t wait for her to have her own book.

The title of this book piqued my interest and the cover is pretty amazing. We start out in Salizars's Incredible Elemental Circus, a safe haven for lost souls. Harrow has been with the circus since she was 10 yrs old. She is a fortune teller, a pretty good one. She's been trying desperately to hide from and forget her past. Harrow is stubborn, caring, loyal and very intuitive. We then meet a man dying in the desert, he has no memory of how he got there or his life before waking up with the hot sun burning his skin. He's strong, smart, blood thirsty and full of rage. When Harrow meets the man, she's instantly drawn to him. He similarly feels a need to be close to her. What does it all mean? There were a lot of things to unravel in this book. So many emotions, it kept me on my toes and hungry for more information. I am excited to see what happens in the next book.

I actually really enjoyed this book! It has been on my wish list since hearing about it and for me it did not disappoint. The story is very fast paced and I read it in one setting. The pov’s do switch around but I had no problem following them. I loved the MMC In this story. He was so sweet and had this innocence about him that you don’t see with most fantasy MMCs. I also really liked the FMC and how she knew what she wanted and took charge( including in the bedroom). The characters were unique and enjoyable to learn about. The book can be read as a stand alone but it hinted that there would be another book about a side character In this one.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing and Red Tower for this E-ARC! I can’t wait to snag my own beautiful physical copy!

So why only 3 stars (really 3.5 but Goodreads won’t let me do half stars)?! Only because I really expected the ending to be a cliffhanger! So much fantasy has been that way for me lately (especially seeing this as a series) so I guess I just expected some big ending!

Regardless, I also didn’t expect this to be a romance either! I loved the story of Raith and Harrow and how much they (he) overcame to be able to be this human form!

The world building is also so beautiful and I can’t wait to read more!

I read in the acknowledgements that the next story will be Malaikah’s and I’m really excited about that! I hope that Raith and Harrow play a part too!!

Thank you again for letting me read this before publishing!

"Sanctuary of the Shadow" was an enjoyable read with a really intriguing premise.

The author did a great job crafting a unique and interesting world. I think that true to many Romantasy plotlines this story focused a lot on the Romance aspect of the storyline and it would be cool to have the author delve deeper into showcasing more of the Fantasy side of this world in any future books.

I personally love when stories are told in multiple POVs so I appreciated that aspect of this story and didn't have any trouble following along. I think the author revealed what was necessary as it was needed.

Overall I think this book is worth reading and I'll read any followups that this author puts out.

Thank you Aurora Ascher, Net Galley and Entangled Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Definitely a romantasy book, but with the perfect combination of both! I adore Raith so freaking much. And I'm hoping we a book for Mal!

I was unable to put Sanctuary of the Shadow down once I started. Read cover to cover, I found myself cheering on Harrow and desperately wanting Raith to get a happy ending after a life of horrors, even if he couldn't remember them. I had the strangest feeling of deja vu during my whole read through, and the story had the feeling of coming home. It was a quick and comforting read.

🌶️🌶️ On the spice level.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Entangled Publishing/ Red Tower Books for the book.

Red Tower Books has the greatest books out there. I have absolutely loved and devoured evrry one to date! This one had me so excited. I could not wait to jump into it.

I settled down for a long day and night of reading and am so disappointed in this book. Maybe I should not have hoped myself up do much, but I had to force myself to finish this one.

The characters, Raith and Harrow, fell flat, The story was poorly developed, and the switch between points of view had me dizzy.

Can not belive Red Tower endorsed and published this one. I have pre-ordered every book they released to date.

Sadly I just can not recommend.

I really loved the premise of Sanctuary of the Shadow — the mysterious being without memories and his connection to Harrow. I want to leave this very spoiler free, so what I feel like I can say is this has an interesting take on my favourite trope. I did enjoy the characters, especially Raith — I felt his storyline was intriguing and he had my favourite parts of the book.

So, where this didn’t work as much for me was the complexity of the story felt very middle-grade/lower YA with very adult elements mixed in. The world building is very minimal and I wish there were a lot more of it! I would’ve loved a more slowburn romance as well because I was really enjoying the initial interactions between Raith and Harrow. I would’ve loved to spend more time in the circus setting because that was only 1/4 of the book.

I loved the originality and felt that there was a lot of potential here. Despite the lack of world building and the fast burn romance, I really did enjoy this book. I’m more than likely going to read the sequel as well and see where the author goes with it.

Thank you to Entangled and Red Tower for the chance to read early.